


Next Customer?

by shaqfu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cosplay, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-09 06:51:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7791205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaqfu/pseuds/shaqfu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith is a miserable fabric store employee.<br/>Lance is a very obvious cosplayer that refuses to admit that he's a cosplayer.<br/>Neither one of them will find peace in this store.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

There were three things that Keith hated about working at a fabric and craft store. The first, was Craft Moms.

 

“Well, I was under the impression that your store carried the ribbon that was two inches wide and had the gold stripe. You did when I called on the phone last week.”

 

“Ma’am, I’m sorry but it’s possible we sold out between now and then,” Keith replied, trying to keep his voice even.

 

“Well, did you see anybody buying it?”

 

“I’m sorry, this is the first time I’ve been in the store since Wednesday.” Keith answered, wishing he never woke up to go to work today.

 

“Fine whatever, I’ll just buy these mason jars today. I have a competitor coupon, because you don’t have any good coupons today,” the blonde woman said, thrusting her hand into her oversized, dirty designer bag.

 

The second thing Keith hated about working at a fabric and craft store was that his store accepted competitor coupons.

 

Keith warily took the coupons, looking down at the conditions.

 

“Ma’am, I’m sorry but these coupons are made for fabric, not for mason jars. I can’t put the coupon on the item.”

 

There was a silence that filled the small personal bubble that that made up this angry woman and Keith. If if was humanly possible, Keith could have sworn the woman’s next line was said in slow motion.

 

“I want to speak to the manager.”

 

The third thing Keith hated about working at a fabric and craft store was the phrase, “I want to speak to the manager.”

 

Keith kept his eye contact with the customer as he craned his neck to talk into the walkie talkie.

 

“Uh Shiro, a customer wants to talk to you.”

 

Through the ear piece, Keith heard Shiro’s familiar voice. “Yea, sure, coming.”

 

After ten tense seconds, Keith saw Shiro’s familiar mop of hair over the aisle.

 

“How can I help you today?” Shiro asks in his best manager voice to the woman.

 

“Your employee claims I cannot use this coupon.”

 

“Keith, is this true?” Shiro asks, giving him the tired look that screamed “You and I both know you’re right.”

 

Keith nods and shrugs, “The coupon is for fabric and those are mason jars.”

 

Shiro looks at the woman’s coupon, reading the fine print.

 

“My employee’s absolutely right, we can’t use this coupon on the mason jars,” Shiro confirms.

 

“If you have a smartphone, you can use the 20% off your total purchase coupon that’s available for today,” Keith suggests, trying to get back into the woman’s good graces.

 

“No, I want to use this 50%,” the woman responds, refusing to use logic.

 

“There’s nothing we can do,” Shiro says, voice final.

 

“Fine, whatever,” the woman huffs, using the 20% coupon that Keith suggests. Shoving her bag full of mason jars into her oversized handbag, the woman stormed out of the door, not making eye contact with either employee.

 

“Have a nice day,” Keith cheerfully calls out as she walks out.

 

As much as Keith hated to admit, this kind of behavior happened more often than not, for some reason, so many so many 40-something year old moms think they’re so entitled to 50% off coupons that don’t exist and merchandise that hasn’t been available for the past five months. It was fine though, none of this mattered. At the end of the day, Keith was getting money and that’s what he had to remember.

 

———

 

It was nearing two o’clock when Keith saw him, a little lanky, eyes wide, and speed walking through the door of the store. Despite being around his age, the guy clearly knew his way around the store, beelining directly towards the zippers.

 

Keith was putting back the quilting fabric that was haphazardly left on top of the seasonal pumpkins that were currently on sale for the sake of the impending fall season. He couldn’t help but feel the same manic feeling that the new customer was giving off.

 

Once the customer came to the check out counter, Keith walked over the register. In front of him was in fact, one polyester invisible zipper.

 

“This all for today?” Keith asks, starting a conversation.

 

The guy nods.

 

“Do you have any coupons?” Keith continues on.

 

“You guys have coupons?” The customer asks, eyes going even wider. It was clear he was running low on sleep.

 

“Yea,” Keith begins. “Just go on our website. There’s a tab that says coupons and then if you click on it, you can get 50% off your zipper.”

 

“Really? You’re the best,” brunet answers, eyes watering.

 

“Are, are you crying?” Keith stutters out in shock.

 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” the customer answers, handing over his phone with the coupon displayed. 

 

Keith quietly scans and bags the zipper. As an afterthought as he types in the coupon code Keith asks, “Would you be interested in donating to children in need of school supplies?”

 

“Uh yea, sure, a dollar works,” the customer responds, pulling himself together.

 

Keith scans the one dollar donation sheet and hands him a pen and the paper. “Just write your name down,” he directs.

 

In the same breath, Keith tells the man his total (discount included) and the transaction was finished.

 

Keith looks down at the name on the paper. “Have a great day, Lance.”

 

Lance looks at Keith’s name tag. “Thanks, Keith, I will.”

 

———

 

“Shiro, a customer cried when I told him he could use a 50% off coupon.”

 

“Are you serious?” Shiro asked as he threw cardboard into the garbage crate.

 

“Yea, I told him how to get it and he just started to tear up. It kinda looked like he hasn’t slept in a while so that’s probably why.” 

 

“I guess one good check out in exchange of a bad one,” Shiro says, shrugging.

 

“Yea, you’re right.” Keith agrees, bringing the garbage to the back room.

 

———

 

“So Lance, why are you buying a bunch of solid blue, black, and white fabric? This sure looks like a lot.”

 

Lance was looking a little bit better than he did the last time Keith saw him but his eyes were still screaming “Please let me sleep.”

 

“It’s none of your business Keith, but if you must know, I’m making a costume.”

 

“A little early for Halloween. Is it for a con?”

 

Lance’s face for just a moment was slightly excited. It quickly went back to his neutral, tired state. “No, no it’s not.”

 

Keith rolled his eyes, Lance was totally making a cosplay. “Alright, but I’m just saying, if it’s for a cosplay, and if it’s for the con I think it is, I wish you luck because you only have a week to make everything. From what I’m guessing, you haven’t even started it yet. Oh, that’ll be 43.24.”

 

“Whatever, Keith,” Lance grumbled as he angrily swiped his card.

 

“It’s a chip,” Keith replies with a sarcastic grin.

 

“Fuckin’ tech-fuck,” Lance mumbles under his breath.

 

Quickly, Keith hands Lance his receipt and bag, bidding him a good day. “I’ll see you soon!” 

 

“Whatever,” Lance says quietly.

 

As Keith watched him leave the store, he noticed Lance’s backpack had a few charms hanging off of his straps. Old keychains of Naruto, a little dirty on the front pocket zipper, a rubber Caesar Zeppeli strap hanging off the main zipper, and a few others that Keith wasn’t familiar with.

 

“Not a cosplay, my ass.”

 

———

 

“I can take the next customer?” Keith shouts to the line as he finishes taking a sip of water. 

 

Lance stomps up to the counter, placing two clear, hollow sphere ornaments, and a roll of heat activated shrink wrap. The bags under his eyes were even darker.

 

“Lance, you need to sleep, please. I know this con is in two days but you need to sleep today. Just take a nap.”

 

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

 

“Anyway, so tell me if I’m right,” he begins, as he scans the items. “You’re cosplaying Caesar Zeppeli, aren’t you?”

 

Lance blushed. The contrast between red cheeks and dark circles were comical. “How’d you know?” He asked, putting his card into the chip reader.

 

“The charm on your backpack. The fabric was the right color and the fact that you’re buying stuff that looks like bubbles confirmed my suspicions.” Keith admitted, mentally patting himself on the back.

 

“Damn, those are some good detective skills. So I’m guessing you’re gonna be there too? Who are you cosplaying?” Lance answered, for once warming up to Keith.

 

“You’ll just have to find out in two days,” Keith answers as he hands Lance his receipt.

 

Lance stared at Keith, shocked that the cashier wasn’t interested in sharing his cosplay plans after finally figuring out Lance’s. 

 

“Have a great day. I can help the next customer!” Keith shouts, as he pushes Lance’s back towards the door of the store.


	2. Chapter 2

”Excuse me Caesar, can we get a photo together?” Keith asks, tapping Lance on his shoulder.

 

Lance whipped his head around, smiling, until he made eye contact with Keith. “Keith, holy shit is that you?”

 

Keith was, appropriately dressed as Lance’s counterpart, Joseph Joestar.

 

Keith nodded, “I honestly was planning this months before the con, I was kind of hoping we’d be doing Jojo on the same day.”

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lance asked.

 

“I had to coax it out of you that you were cosplaying, let alone me telling you that I’m doing the same series as you. I’ve had this costume done for like three weeks now.”

 

Lance avoided eye contact, looking slightly embarrassed. “Yea, you’re right,” he admitted, voice dropping off. “Wait, how did you know it was me?” he asked, recovering from his momentary shyness.

 

“Your backpack, it’s the same one you were wearing when you came into the store.”

 

“Oh Keith, were you checking out my ass?” Lance teased, with a mischievous grin.

 

Keith rolled his eyes, “You wish, I was trying to see what was on your backpack,” Keith shot back.

 

That was only part truth. Keith was looking at the backpack but also maybe just checking out Lance’s butt a little bit. Those shorts he was wearing were a little shorter than normal and Keith was curious to know if his butt was as good as his legs.

 

“Whatever you say,” Lance said, dismissing Keith, waving his hand. “Let’s take a selfie though,” Lance continued on.

 

Lance pulled out his phone and haphazardly stuck it onto a selfie stick.

 

Keith watched in silent horror. “You seriously have a selfie stick?” he asked, hoping this was all some bizarre dream.

 

“I like having options for my angles.” Lance retorted. “Come here and get in the photo.”

 

Lance quickly gestured at Keith to get closer. Once Keith was in the view, Lance flashed a peace sign and gave a ridiculous duck face. Keith, was just sorta staring at Lance in confused horror.

 

“Alright, now an in character one!!” Lance said to Keith, clearly excited.

 

Keith quickly adapted to Lance’s rapid fire demands as Lance quickly clicked the button on the handle of the selfie stick.

  
  


“Cool, can I put these on Twitter? Do you have a Twitter?”

 

“Uh,” Keith began, processing what the hell just happened. This Lance was totally different from the customer that he had at his store. This Lance clearly was running on less sleep and was hopped up on energy drinks. His makeup was hiding his tiredness well, but Keith looked into his eyes and he knew Lance has not even sat on a bed in the past twenty-fours hours.

 

_ Bless his procrastinating ass. _ Keith thought to himself.

 

“I don’t have a Twitter but you can post them,” Keith answered, finally processing what Lance had just said.

 

———

 

“Excuse me, Joseph and Caesar, can I get a photo?” a timid Nico Yazawa cosplayer asked.

 

“Sure,” Lance responded with a smile. Keith just simply nodded. They had been rooted in the same spot, talking, getting to know each other, sharing their overall con experience so far.

 

Instantly, the two posed the same way they have been for the past half hour when people asked them for a photo. After a few clicks, the Nico seemed like she wanted more.

 

“Can I…” she began, blushing. “Have a shippy pic?” she asked, the rest of her question tumbling out.

 

“Oh my God, what year is it,” Lance whispered. 

 

“I’m down if you are,” Keith said with confidence.

 

Keith in that moment felt like he has lost his body to a monster. A really gay monster who was a glutton for punishment.

 

“Alright,” Lance responded, eyeing Keith. “What do you want us to do?” he asks, turning to the Nico.

 

“Oh! Uh, just a kiss is fine,” she says, turning an even brighter red.

 

“Alright, here it goes,” Keith says, leaning in towards Lance.

 

Lance leaned forward, placing his hand on the back of Keith’s neck. Their lips met and Keith’s neck grew hot. It had been a while since Keith kissed somebody so there was a little bit of fear that he wasn’t going to be up to Lance’s standards, but from Lance’s hand pushing Keith’s neck and head closer, Keith might be safe to say that he was doing an ok job. Lance kissed with force and way more enthusiasm than a cosplay picture would merit.

 

“Alright, I’m good, thank you,” the Nico called. Her voice felt far away, but Keith knew that that was his signal to stop kissing even though he didn’t want to. Reluctantly, he pulled away, lips tingling.

 

When Keith looked at Lance, Keith realized the Caesar cosplayer was a little dazed. It looked like Keith had to be the friendly one for the moment.

 

“Thank you for taking our photo, have a great con,” he said to the Nico. The girl quickly bowed her head with a nod and walked away.

 

“Hey Lance, you good?” Keith asked, putting his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

 

“Huh? Uh, yea, I’m good. Just a little tired. I think I’m gonna grab a coffee or something,” Lance responded. Half to himself and half to Keith.

 

“Alright, I guess, I’ll see you later?” Keith asked, a little disappointed.

 

“No! No, come with me,” Lance answered, realizing his mistake.

 

Relief bloomed in Keith’s chest, “Sure.”

 

———

 

Keith felt his phone buzz as he took his final sip of his iced green tea. It was a text from Shiro.

 

Message from: Shiro

 

So Allura was scrolling through Twitter, and somebody retweeted this onto her feed.

 

Keith opened up the image that Shiro sent with the text. The image was a screenshot of a two pictures of two very familiar faces. Staring at Keith were the two photos that he took earlier with Lance. They even had had a BeautyCam filter on them. The worst part was the caption. It read, “OMG HOT FABRIC STORE CASHIER WAS COSPLAYING JOSEPH”.

 

Keith didn’t know what to even think, his mind just simply rebooted.

 

When Keith returned to a human state, his brain gathered three things:

 

  1. Lance has talked about Keith before on Twitter.
  2. Lance loves attention and apparently runs a pretty popular cosplay Twitter.
  3. Lance thought Keith was hot.



 

_ Lance thought Keith was hot. _

 

Keith swallowed to collect himself, it was now or never.

 

“Hey Lance, I heard you think I’m hot.”

 

Lance’s eye’s bulged as he choked on his iced coffee.

 

“Excuse me,” he asked, half choking, half shrieking.

 

Keith held up his phone to show Lance the screenshot. “My manager’s girlfriend sent this to him, who sent it to me.”

 

“Oh fuck,” Lance whispered as he continued to stare at Keith’s phone.

 

“It was pretty obvious that you were into kissing me when that Love Live cosplayer asked for our photo. And I’m going to be real with you, you’re pretty good looking. How about we go out after you get a full night’s sleep after this con.”

 

It was obvious that Lance’s mind was now the one that was rebooting. Quickly, he snapped out of it. “Yes! Yea, I’d love to!”

 

———

Keith felt the familiar vibration of his phone. It was another text from Shiro, with another screenshot of Lance’s Twitter.

 

“HOT JOJO CASHIER ASKED ME OUT ON A DATE!!!!!”

 

Keith felt a blush spread throughout his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well kids, thus ends another self indulgent fanfiction.  
> chances are, I'm probably not gonna write klance or any voltron fan fiction for a while unless somebody commissions me. if you do commission me, all your wildest dreams will come true. shoot, I'll even write another chapter in the same universe of your fav Shaqfu AU Fan Fic™. Of course, I can do something completely new as well or even something from a whole different fan base! don't be afraid to ask me questions so you will be satisfied! 
> 
> if you want to support your local ao3 shaqfu but don't have the money for commissions, I have a handy dandy commissions post on both tumblr on twitter that I would be forever grateful if you reblogged or retweeted!
> 
> [twitter post](https://twitter.com/vicunad/status/767830087546736640) // [tumblr post](http://countvonroo.tumblr.com/post/149240751667)
> 
> thanks so much everybody! until possibly next time!

**Author's Note:**

> did y'all know that I work at a fabric/craft store and every time I get an Obvious Cosplayer I live in fear that I'm gonna bump into them at a con? Several of them know me as "the girl who's gonna be sentient plankton at comic con."
> 
> Also, why is it that Keith always the one who's working when I'm writing? who knows. why is lance always into jojo and naruto in my fics? who knows??
> 
> I'm debating doing writing commissions because ya girl needs money for chicken nuggets. so comment on here or hmu on twitter and tumblr if you'd be vaguely interested. 
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/vicunad) | [tumblr](http://countvonroo.tumblr.com/) | [commission info](http://countvonroo.tumblr.com/post/149196715942)


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